PLAYING KAHOOT! FOR FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT TO IMPROVE ACADEMIC DIDACTICS

This research paper focuses on the concept of formative assessment and on the significance that the assessment can have in academic didactics, in order to improve students performances. As explained by the specialist literature, formative assessment refers to a variety of methods and tools that teacher can use in-process evaluation to understand students’ learning needs and requirements with regard to their academic progress. At each level of education and / or vocational training, formative assessment practices help teachers detect notions that are hostile for students’ comprehension or to identify learning outcome they have not yet reached. Formative assessment permits teacher to reflect on his / her teaching practices so that corrections can be made to lectures or teaching materials, also imagining academic support and tutoring. Thus, the main objective of formative assessment is to collect precise information or data that can be useful to improve student learning while it is still happening, implementing changes to the planned course of lectures. The relevance of formative assessment in student learning is commonly known: it provides students the basic information for educational choices, for example on the learning method or on the time to spend studying. That being said, this exploratory research presents some result of a pilot study carried out in an academic course to understand the importance of formative assessment across higher education. In this study, teaching method has increased from a teacher-centered approach to blended learning approach, through the introduction of an online test called Kahoot!, which take advantages of gamification model. As reported in the information available on the web bases platform, Kahoot! is a free game-based learning, indicative for formative assessment. It have considered to use the classic features of the game (prizes, rewards, competition, entertainment, socialization), which gratify participants motivating them to continue with the learning task, to verify how the information has been retained and learned, in order to improve teaching practice. Reflection on some characteristics of formative assessment could open a new debate on the theory, especially for academic practices. It is understood that there is the necessity for further theoretical improvement in relation to formative assessment, which needs to consider disciplinary specificity, context of application, target, methodologies and tools. Suggestions are made concerning research into formative assessment in higher education and how research can contribute to the improvement of academic didactics, and, consequently, the teaching / learning process.